Work in progress, I haven't finished writing this answer yet. - fogleman Dec 22, 2006
The Situation
Describe the situation here:
At the end of the day, I found evidence that students have used of the labstation computers to visit inappropriate websites.
Understanding the Situation
a. What might be some underlying causes of the situation that you need to think about?
Since I did not discover the problem until the end of the day, I have no idea if a student in one of my classes actually went to the inappropriate sites, so it is not likely that I can discern "underlying causes." If it was a student, the behavior was inappropriate. Depending on the amount of browsing in the history list, it might indicate that either the student was in my classroom during lunch or that I was not sufficiently aware of monitoring the students during lab.
b. Are there resources within your school that might be of help? If so who and what questions should you ask them?
My school has a technology use policy that every student signs at the beginning of the school year. Students that violate this policy loose their computer priviledges, but there has to be concrete evidence in order to hold a specific student responsible.
c. Are there other resources that might be helpful?
A Solution
As a teacher, you will often try to address problems by preventing them. That said, things happen in classrooms that cannot be anticipated beforehand and you will have to make decisions about how to address the situation.
In this section, be sure to:
a. Decide whether your action is proactive (action aimed at preventing problem) or reactive (action occurs after situation develops).
This will be a reactive solution. I will assume that the culprit is a student in one of my classes.
b. Decide what grade level you will "solve" this problem for.
High school.
c. Describe what you'll do.
I will do several things that make clear my expectations and enhance my ability to monitor computer use:
1. I will arrange the computer monitors so that I can see several of them at once from one or two central locations.
2. For the next two weeks, I will heighten my attention to each class's computer use by making a point of monitoring all lab groups and spot checking their browser history at the end of each period.
At the beginning of the next lab period, I will tell students that :
There has been evidence of lab computer misuse. This is a violation of a district policy that you agreed to, and will not be tolerated. It also unnecessarily endangers the reputation of your classmates and this class. I consider students who knowingly allow this type of behavior in their group to be just as culpable as the person directly responsible.
An additional violation will result in the class loosing its access to the computers.
The use of all computers in the classroom is monitored and I reserve the right to check this at any time. Students may not move monitors or clear the history of their internet browser.
Since evidence of a violation will be for a lab group, and will result in a certain amount of hassle for some group members who are innocent, then it would be reasonable if you wanted to alert me to any problems that are happening in your group. You may do so discretely at sometime during the school day.
As students and school leaders, you decide what type of school this is and what type of community you are a member of by the decisions you make about this type situation. Pride in your school and yourself starts when you look in the mirror and deci
Work in progress, I haven't finished writing this answer yet. -
The Situation
Describe the situation here:
At the end of the day, I found evidence that students have used of the labstation computers to visit inappropriate websites.
Understanding the Situation
a. What might be some underlying causes of the situation that you need to think about?
Since I did not discover the problem until the end of the day, I have no idea if a student in one of my classes actually went to the inappropriate sites, so it is not likely that I can discern "underlying causes." If it was a student, the behavior was inappropriate. Depending on the amount of browsing in the history list, it might indicate that either the student was in my classroom during lunch or that I was not sufficiently aware of monitoring the students during lab.
b. Are there resources within your school that might be of help? If so who and what questions should you ask them?
My school has a technology use policy that every student signs at the beginning of the school year. Students that violate this policy loose their computer priviledges, but there has to be concrete evidence in order to hold a specific student responsible.
c. Are there other resources that might be helpful?
A Solution
As a teacher, you will often try to address problems by preventing them. That said, things happen in classrooms that cannot be anticipated beforehand and you will have to make decisions about how to address the situation.
In this section, be sure to:
a. Decide whether your action is proactive (action aimed at preventing problem) or reactive (action occurs after situation develops).
This will be a reactive solution. I will assume that the culprit is a student in one of my classes.
b. Decide what grade level you will "solve" this problem for.
High school.
c. Describe what you'll do.
I will do several things that make clear my expectations and enhance my ability to monitor computer use:
1. I will arrange the computer monitors so that I can see several of them at once from one or two central locations.
2. For the next two weeks, I will heighten my attention to each class's computer use by making a point of monitoring all lab groups and spot checking their browser history at the end of each period.
At the beginning of the next lab period, I will tell students that :